Administration ‘frees’ land ‘occupied’ by J&K ex-minister, he says don’t own any in Shopian

Drabu also said that the Additional Deputy Commissioner of Shopian later told him that the land was in a “family member’s name”. Drabu said, “When I asked him how I am responsible for someone else, he said they would correct it (a tweet by the DC office’s Twitter handle)”.

In the tweet, the official handle of Shopian DC, Sachin Kumar, posted, “Among 100s of kanals of illegally occupied land freed today, Shopian administration retrieved 15 kanals of illegally occupied high value orchard land from former Finance Minister Haseeb Drabu, Government’s zero tolerance policy ensures land is used for public benefit.”

Drabu told The Sunday Express: “How is it possible? I don’t know of any land in Shopian. There is something amiss. I don’t have any land — orchard or no orchard — in Shopian.”

He also said, “If there was any land registered in my name, the government had to first send me an eviction notice. We would have checked the revenue records. I would have responded to their notice.”

Drabu said he had ignored the news at first. “But when they officially tweeted, I called the DC. He didn’t take calls. After sometime, his ADC (Additional Deputy Commissioner) called me. I asked him about the tweet. He said they, too, had seen it just then. I asked him if the land is registered in my name. He said no, it is in some family member’s name. When I asked him how I am responsible for someone else, he said they would correct it.”

On Friday, the district administration had demolished a multistorey commercial complex in Shopian, stating that it was illegally constructed on government land by former J&K Social Welfare minister Ghulam Hassan Khan.

On Saturday, the district administration said it has retrieved 402 kanals of Kahcharie/state land from “illegal occupiers”. It said the administration has served notice to the occupants for recovery of cost incurred on the recent demolition. “Influential people, who built the illegal structures, will pay for the demolition too,” the administration tweeted.

Shopian DC Sachin Kumar did not respond to calls and messages.